Reach your goals with a smart savings plan – Loans

Car, boat holiday home or travel. Whatever you dream of, there is a solution. Emma Persson at SBAB helps you set up a savings plan to make your dreams come true.

If you set a time frame and a goal sum, your chances of success increase, she says.

Different dreams in life, things we want to see, experience or own

Some cost time, others cost money and some require both. No matter what your dream looks like, you are right to set up a plan as soon as possible for how to achieve it, otherwise the risk is that it will never come true.

Emma Persson, an economist at SBAB, emphasizes the importance of taking her dreams seriously, and she has several good tips on how to set up a savings plan in order to realize them.

Rule number one is to sit down and think, what do you want with your life? After all, money is about dreams and when you start to think about these issues, many other thoughts are raised about lifestyle, career and living, she says.

Once you’ve figured out what you have for your dreams and what you want to prioritize in the near future, it’s time for step two – setting a goal.

The most important thing to succeed in saving is to have a clear goal

Just as with training, it is much easier to get started then. If you are training for a marathon or beach 2016 you will find it easier to find the motivation. From a psychological point of view, these are the same mechanisms that apply to saving.

When it is time to start saving, there are two parameters that are good to start from – time frame and target sum. When you have this ready for you, it becomes very easy to figure out how much money you have to put aside each month, explains Emma Persson.

– This facilitates when you are faced with more short-term temptations in everyday life. For most people, it is much easier to live here and now instead of planning ahead. But if you have a clear savings goal, your chances of actually succeeding increase!

But what to do if you still fail to save all the money needed to make a dream come true? When is it okay to take out a loan? Emma Persson tips on a simple yardstick to start from.

The basic rule is to consider what your investment is worth in a few years

If you lend to something that has lasting value, such as a home or education, it is easier to justify a loan. If, on the other hand, you lend to buy a car or a boat, not to mention a holiday trip, you should have a substantial cash contribution and be able to afford to repay the loan quickly. Think about an extra time before you borrow for things that quickly lose value. Think about whether you can save for them instead.